Manually operated shovels for digging in and moving earth and snow are widely used. In the past, shovels generally included a broad blade and a handle extending from the blade. Some shovel blades included a substantially flat blade portion that terminated in squared edge, others included a slightly curved blade portion that tapered from a wide section to a triangular point. Additional shovels have included blades with either a rounded edge or even a serrated edge. In all of the aforementioned styles, the blade portion is formed of a uniform gauge of material, usually steel, that is cut and bent into a desired shape thereby forming the blade portion of the shovel. A handle is then attached to the blade.
The problem with the aforementioned shovels is that the blade portion of the shovel is difficult to push into material. Despite having a thin edge, the overall surface area of the blade drags significantly on the material regardless of whether the blade terminates in a squared edge, rounded edge, tapered or triangular edge or even a serrated edge. In each instance the thickness of the edge is substantially the same as the thickness of the blade. Thus when the edge penetrates a plane of a material, the surface area of the blade comes into contact with the material. As the shovel blade progresses into the material, an increasing amount of blade surface comes into contact with the material creating friction, making it increasingly harder for an operator to penetrate the material. Additionally, because the shovel blades are of substantially uniform thickness, a suction may be created between the blade and the material making it difficult for the operator to both continue to penetrate the material and extract the blade from the material.